GANT AND SEARCHES OF RECENT OCCUPANTS OF CARS
This year's best search case from the US Supremes was Gant (129 S.Ct. 1710), where the court ruled that a vehicle search incident to arrest isn't lawful after an arrestee has been secured and can't access the interior of the vehicle. Under Gant, the search here was clearly illegal. But the majority says that Gant changed the law, so the officer acted in good faith in searching, precluding suppression.
Read the excellent dissent for why this is just wrong. On a second point, remember McGaughran (25 Cal.3d 577), in which the California Supremes said that a lawful detention can become illegally prolonged? The California Court of Appeals claims that Prop. 8 and McKay (27 Cal.4th 601) wipe McGaughran out. They claim that so long as the police stop the defendant for a violation of the Vehicle Code, a detention is legal, no matter how prolonged.
They simply don't mention US v. Sharpe (470 US 675) and US v. Place (462 US 696), which are to the contrary. The reasoning here would permit an indefinite detention on a traffic infraction. This, my friends, is what an Outrage Of The Week
looks like.
People v. Branner; 2009 DJ DAR 17583; DJ, 12/21/09; C/A 3rd
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